Removing old device drivers - nice cleanup or dangerous

[TigerSoul]

Hey people!

I'm sure most of you know of the "devmgr_show_nonpresent_device" variable to show inactive (disconnected etc) devices in device manager. A common old practice is to look around here occasionally and clean everything out that you don't connect or use anymore to tidy things up.

However, in Windows 7 I see alot of things showing up in this viewing mode that definetely NOT isn't old or unused and probably should be left alone. This makes me wonder: is this practice of tidying things up by uninstalling old devices still a good hint or is it more of a dangerous and unnecessary thing that is begging for trouble?

I'd like some solid info on this if anybody has it. Most seem to communicate the "go ahead" attitude, but I'm not so sure. Any ideas?

Kristian

 

[RogerR]

Have you tried analyzing with CCleaner? It's a favorite around here and (from personal experience) seems adept at not flagging files which should be left alone.

 

[TigerSoul]

I did use it a long long time ago in it's early stages but I haven't looked recently, perhaps I should have a look

EDIT: as far as I see there are no options to uninstall old device drivers in cc cleaner?